World of Secrets
by Jade Cherry Blossom
Summary: Something weird is going on in the SVU Unit and Olivia Benson is going to figure out what.
1. Chapter 1

"Liv. Liv. Olivia!"

Olivia jerked out of her day dream to look across her desk at her partner, Elliot, who was watching her with a careful, slightly concerned gaze. "Are you ok?"

The dark haired, chocolate eyed detective nodded as she sat back in her seat and let out a long, slow breath trying to shake the last, slippery fingers of her day dream from her mind.

"Are you sure? You seemed pretty far away. What were you thinking about?" Asked the well-seasoned male detective that's been Olivia's partner for years.

Olivia thought back to her day dream and did her best not to blush. Lately there's been only one thing and one person that's occupied her every day dream and fantasy. Judge Elizabeth Donnelly. And the dreams usually involved them being naked and contorted into various positions. The older, tall, lean blonde has occupied Olivia Benson's every thought for the past three months and it's gotten to be very distracting. Anytime her mind becomes idle Elizabeth's face seems to materialize in her mind's eye and she finds herself going all dreamy eyed with longing. And she wasn't even sure why she was suddenly hung up on the woman. She's worked with Elizabeth for years and now all of a sudden she wants to blush when the woman's near and has to resist the urge to lean in and sniff her wonderful perfume. She was head over heels for the woman and she didn't have a clue as to why or even when it happened!

"Liv!" Elliot called to his partner again, frowning as he did so. He, too, has noticed that Liv's seemed pretty off lately but she won't give him any hints as to why. Whenever he asks what's wrong she either changes the subject or just blows him off. "Are you sick or something? Do you need to see a doctor?"

Liv was saved from having to answer their boss Captain Don Craigen appeared by their desks. "Get your jackets your two. I have an assignment for you."

"You sure this is the place?" Olivia asked as she stepped out of the black unmarked sedan onto the side walk and looked up at the old, red brick apartment building located in a shadier part of Manhattan. They were supposed to be picking up a key witness to a murder case that the department had stashed away to ensure her safety. Why'd they stashed her here Olivia wondered. This place was in no way safe.

Elliot walked up beside his partner and surveyed the neighborhood. He, too, seemed unhappy and confused about the arrangements that had been made for this witness. Checking his phone for the address the captain sent them he nodded. "Yeah this is the place."

"The department could've done better." Olivia said with a shake of her head as they walked up the five steps to the front door. After scanning the names on the buzzers she pressed the one beside the name Castle. A few moments later the sound of static came over the intercom before a female voice obviously heavy with sleep drifted out over the static. "Hello?"

"Hello, I'm Detective Benson and my partner Detective Stabler." Olivia spoke back into the intercom. A moment later the door buzzed open and Olivia and Elliot stepped inside. The hallway was reasonably lite and spacious. Directly in front of them were a set stairs, to the right was a hallway that lead to the first level apartments and to the left an old elevator that had an out of order sign taped to the tarnished doors.

"Looks like we're taking the stairs." Elliot said as he headed for the steep steps.

Olivia shook her head, making her shoulder length brown hair bounce around a bit as she followed her partner up. Luckily for them their witness was only on the third level. The door was marked 3C and was made of some very weak looking wood, dragging a look of disapproval from both detectives. Why would the department house an important witness in such an unsafe dump? If they were out of usable safe houses surely they could've sprung for a hotel or something, anything better than this place. The two detectives shared a look before Olivia reached out to knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Called out a female voice sounding a lot more alert then she had over the intercom.

"Detective Benson and Stabler." Olivia answered.

"Hold your badges up to the peephole." The voice demanded sounding like she didn't really believe they were who they said they were.

Olivia held her badge up first then Elliot held up his. They were used to reactions like this so it didn't bother them. After a few moments a series of clicks and jingling chains could be heard before door opened up to reveal the owner of the voice. She was 26, about 5'4 with midnight black hair drawn up into a ponytail and odd purple eyes that had to be contacts. She wore a light violet colored tank top and grey shorts that were sleep wrinkled. Her feet were bare, her toes painted to match the color of her eyes.

"Come in. What's this about?" The woman, whose name was Tasha, asked as she went to sit on her old worn leather couch tucking her feet up under her.

"We were sent to pick you up for court." Elliot asked with a slight frown. "No one contacted you?"

Tasha's oddly gorgeous purple eyes went wide. "What? That was today?" She jumped off the couch and rushed to her bedroom to get some clothes. "They called like two days ago saying they'd send someone to get me when it was time." She called from the bedroom. "But I couldn't remember what day you were supposed to get here." Rushing out of the bedroom into the bathroom she slammed the door and started the shower.

Elliot and Olivia shared a look; this was getting stranger by the minute. Why would the department stash their witness in this dump and not call her to tell her she was being picked up for court that day? Someone was not doing their job and they were going to find out why.

Casey Novak, one of SVU's top A.D.A's, was pacing in her office as she checked her watche for the third time in as many minutes and wondered, not for the first time, where the hell was her witness! Olivia and Elliot should've delivered the woman by now; they were half an hour late and counting! She needed Tasha in her office now so she could brief the woman before the trial started but she was running out of time. She was about to pick up her phone to call the detectives yet again when there was a knock at her door making the red head spin around and look at the wooden door. "Come in!"

Olivia opened the door to her best friend's office and allowed Tasha to walk in first. Olivia could see the irritation in Casey's bright, pale green eyes and knew the woman was less than pleased with something. "Good morning Counselor."

"Good morning." Casey said a bit tensely and smiled at Tasha. "Hello Tasha, nice to see you again."

Tasha smiled at the red haired lawyer. "It's nice to see you as well. Sorry we're late, I'm afraid I wasn't expecting the detectives to show up to bring me to court today."

A puzzled look crossed Casey's face. "I called to remind you yesterday."

"You did. But shortly after you called yesterday some guy called, he said he was your assistant, Mark Jang, John, James….something like that." She shrugged before continuing. "Anyways he called and said that the trial had been pushed back and I didn't need to show up and someone would call me tell me more when they knew more."

The A.D.A and Detectives frowned deeply; there was no way someone should've called Tasha. For one Tasha was supposed to be in witness protection, no one should've known how to get in contact with her. And two, Casey's assistant wasn't a man, it was a woman.

"What the hell is going on?" Casey asked as she turned to look at her detectives.

Olivia shook her head making her long brown hair bounce a little. "I don't know but we're going to find out."

Two things were very clear, one, Tasha couldn't go back to that rundown apartment someone dumped her in and two, there was something major going on.

Back in the squad room things were going from weird to down-right scary. The US Marshal's office had no record of Tasha Castle being entered into the system and no order of protection could be found anywhere. Nor was there a record of the apartment she was assigned to stay in.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Liv asked in a frustrated and bewildered tone as she hung up the phone with the Marshalls. "There is no record of Tasha being entered in any system anywhere. No one seems to know anything."

Munch shook his head. "Someone knows something and I bet it's a cover up. Someone doesn't want to get their asses handed to them so they delete everything."

"You can't delete whole paper files. Someone, somewhere, has to have something on the girl." Fin chimed in from his desk beside Munch's.

"Well if they do they're not speaking up." Liv said as she twirled a pen between her thumb and first finger. "Either way we need to get her moved. You should've seen the place she was in! Low security, rundown neighborhood. If anyone finds out she's there she'll be a sitting duck."

"Do we know who took care of the paper work that was supposed to get Tasha in the wit program in the first place?" Elliot asked from where he was refilling his coffee cup with what the prescient joking called coffee.

Munch shook his head. "There's nothing in the system."

"We need to start from the beginning." Olivia said in a thoughtful way. "Who were the lead detectives?"

All four of the Detectives looked at each other, that's when it hit them. None of them worked the case. "Why the hell do we have the case then?"

No one seemed to have an answer.

"Where did this girl and this case come from?" Olivia asked in fascinated and disturbed voice.


	2. Chapter 2

Olivia walked through the halls of the court house on her way to Casey's office. She'd spent most of yesterday investigating the mysterious Tasha Castle and the case she was connected to. But every turn she took eventually lead her down the same path and she discovered the same answer. No one knew anything about the case or Tasha Castle. She had managed to talk someone into ponying up the money for Tasha to stay in a hotel instead of the rat hole she was staying in and that alone made Olivia feel a little better. The fact still remained that she was still in the dark about what was truly going on and that didn't sit comfortably with her at all.

Just as the brown eyed detective pressed the call button for the elevator, a voice washed over her that made her body stiffen and her insides melt at the same time.

"Detective Benson, what are you doing in my neck of the woods?" Elizabeth Donnelly, former SVU A.D.A turned Judge was a striking woman. Standing 5'8 and in her late forties she had a lean and deceptively strong body, long legs, curly blonde hair, striking hazel brown eyes and a reputation for having a sharp double edged tongue and for making anyone dumb enough to piss her off pee their pants. Her voice was deep and smooth like well-aged brandy and when she walked she looked like poetry in motion, or at least that's what Olivia opinion.

As Elizabeth approached her Olivia could smell the light yet warm and inviting perfume the judge always wore. It made her knees want to go weak and certain parts of her body to stand up and pay attention. She took a deep breath to calm her nervous, but found that was a mistake. Taking in a breath through her nose only succeeded in filling her with the warm scent that was Elizabeth Donnelly and made her slightly lightheaded. Turning around she pasted a smile to her face that she hoped wouldn't divulge how nervous she felt at the moment and prayed her eyes didn't show the desire she felt. "Judge Donnelly." She said in as professional voice as she could muster. "How are you?"

"Well, thank you. How are you?" The blonde asked as she stepped up to stand beside Olivia. She was wearing her black judges robes and was clearly just coming from court.

The doors on the elevator slid open in front of the women and both had to move to the side so people could get off. "I'm fine." Olivia answered and moved onto the elevator after everyone that was getting off, got off.

Elizabeth followed suit filling onto the elevator and turned to press her floor. "Where are you heading?"

Olivia had to really focus so she didn't do something stupid. This was the closest she's physically been to Elizabeth in a long time. She'd always been careful to keep her distance fearing she wouldn't be able to keep her hands to herself or resist giving Elizabeth's perfume a sniff. But now they were literally rubbing shoulders. "Up to see Casey." She answered.

"She's not going to be in her office just yet." Elizabeth informed the detective. "She just won her case in my courtroom. I'm sure she's busy celebrating with her victim."

"Oh." Olivia said a little put out. She didn't really have time to wait around for Casey to come back.

Elizabeth glanced over at Olivia for a moment. "Anything I can help you with Detective?" Olivia used to come to Liz when she needed advice about her cases but lately the woman's kept her distance, something that wasn't lost on her.

The doors slid open soundlessly and both women, along with a few other riders, stepped off onto the floor. Things were a lot calmer up here then it had been downstairs where lawyers, judges, victims, cons and cops had all been rushing around. Up here the noise level was significantly lowers and the hallways were nearly deserted by comparison.

"I'm having some trouble with a case that no one seems to have any information on. Since it's Casey's case I need to ask her a few questions." Olivia answered as they walked down the hallway. Unconsciously Olivia dropped back a step or two so she could catch glances of Elizabeth's ass while they walked.

"What case is it if I may ask." Elizabeth asked as they turned a corner.

"The Cortet case." Olivia answered, doing her best to sound professional and not get caught looking at Elizabeth's firm ass. For a forty something year old Elizabeth's body was in excellent condition.

Elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face Olivia, her face serious. "You need to stop asking questions about that case Detective." She said firmly, her hazel eyes boring into Olivia's chocolate ones.

All thoughts of Elizabeth's firm ass disappeared from the younger woman's mind as she easily slipped back into Detective Benson mode. "Why? What do you know about it Judge Donnelly?"

"Just drop it." The judge answered and looked around quickly to make sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. "This isn't something you should concern yourself with. There's a reason there's no record of the case Olivia."

Olivia's bright chocolate brown eyes narrowed as she regarded Elizabeth. "Why is there no record of the case or Ms. Castle? What's going on Donnelly?"

Looking around again Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm not at liberty to say and Novak won't be able to help you either. Just leave it alone Olivia." She said in a low serious and sincere voice. "This isn't something you should go snooping around. It's for your own good."

"My own good?" Olivia blinked in confusion and frowned deeply but Elizabeth was obviously finished talking because she continued walking down the hallway and disappeared into her chambers.

Maybe Munch was right for once, Olivia mused. Maybe there was a cover up conspiracy going on here. From the way Elizabeth was talking it was obvious something was up and her unit was being kept out of the loop. And what about Casey? Was Casey just as clueless as they were? Olivia decided it was best if she wanted around to talk to the red head. Despite Elizabeth's warnings, Olivia was not going to stop investigating this case.

C


End file.
